Here's How a Desktop Will Look in Virtual Reality

Good desktop-compatible VR headsets are just about ready to ship to average consumers. In addition to all the demos of skydiving and porn, people are also going to want to use their Rifts as glorified web-searching machines, which will look a little something like this.

There’s already a few VR desktop solutions, but BigScreen is one of the more ambitious. It works with Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, and puts you inside a room with a massive simulated 20-foot virtual monitor running your regular Windows desktop.

More interesting is the virtual collaboration: if you have multiple people running the software, it will put your avatars together in a virtual room with creepy floating heads, and positional audio. It’s an interesting concept for remote work or multiplayer gaming especially, and probably a much closer alternative to reality than hanging out in an IRC channel.

There’s a public beta out today, with finalised software coming in April. There will also be a version for Gear VR somewhere down the line, which will lower the barrier to entry from frighteningly expensive to merely ruinous. [BigScreen via Upload]